IGIHE

Tag: GreatLakesNews

  • Uganda Hits South Sudan 4-0

    {{CECAFA Tusker Cup champions Uganda national team -Cranes on Friday evening hammered tournament debutants South Sudan 4 – 0 to maintain a 100% record.}}

    Lethal striker Brian Umony was at it again testing the South Sudan backline in the 17th minute only for his goal to be ruled offside.

    The towering South Sudanese did not deter the Cranes from flying over them and in the 24th minute Umony found the back of the net and this scoreline went on until the 40th minute when Saidi Kyeyune provided Umony the killer pass for the latter to make it 2-0 in favor of the cranes.

    Brian Umony now has three goals.

    After the break, the champions through Robert Sentogo made it 3-0 before Hamis Kiiza put the icing on the cake scoring the Cranes’ fourth with less than ten minutes to go to make Uganda the only team not to have conceded a goal so far in the tournament.

    In the early kick off game, Kenya beat an unconvincing AFCON bound Ethiopia 3 – 1 to register their second win of the tournament and qualify for the quarterfinals and dump the Horn of Africa nation out.

    Meanwhile, tournament organisers have succumbed to pressure following the appalling conditions at Namboole and moved Saturday games to two other stadiums.

    Games scheduled for Saturday will be played at Lugogo and Wankulukuku Stadiums respectively according to the new arrangement.

    Quarterfinal matches on Monday will also be played at Lugogo but Tuesday’s involving Cranes will return to Namboole as organisers think by then the stadium will have got the much needed rest.

    {{Wirestory}}

  • Nairobi PSVs Protest New Traffic Rules

    {{Nairobi was turned into a ‘walking’ city on Thursday as a crippling strike by Public Service Vehicles (PSV) in protest against punitive fines turned messy.}}

    Chaos was reported in sections of the city such as Kangemi where matatu crews blocked the Nairobi-Nakuru highway and stoned motorists who tried to make their way through.

    In the city centre, PSVs were parked in the middle of the road making parts of Moi Avenue, City Hall Way and Tom Mboya Street inaccessible to other users.

    The PSV crews were protesting against new traffic rules that imposed heavy penalties for offenders.

    The area around Kencom bus stop and Ambassadeur hotel was literally turned into parking lots for a better part of the day.

  • Kenyan MPs Diagree on Elections Bill

    {{Kenyan Parliament adjourned prematurely Thursday after MPs disagreed on a proposal to waive the committee stage for consideration of Bills proposing amendments to two electoral laws.}}

    The two Bills-Political Parties (Amendment) Bill and Elections (Amendment) Bill relate to the next General Election.

    The government had proposed fast tracking of important Bills with political connotations by reducing the period required to process them.

    MPs questioned the hurry. In particular, MPs opposed a proposal by the Deputy Leader of Government Business Amos Kimunya to waive the committee stage where the Bills can be scrutinised by the public.

    The practice is that Bills are referred to relevant departmental parliamentary committees for scrutiny.

    It is at this stage that stakeholders have a chance for input before they are taken back to Parliament for the Third and final stage.

    NMG

  • EAC One-border-post to Ease Clearance of Goods

    {{Non-tariff barriers, bureaucratic processes in decision making and the misuse of Rules of Origin are the main challenges that continue to undermine the integration agenda in East Africa, Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete has said.}}

    While opening the Third Meeting of the First Session of the Third East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, President Kikwete also announced that the region had taken steps to establish One Stop Border Posts, which is expected to facilitate ease of clearance of goods and monitor the elimination of NTBs.

    He however pledged the commitment of the EAC Heads of State Summit to addressing the various challenges facing the integration process so as to enable citizens to reap its full benefits.

    President Kikwete called on the region to delicately address matters of the Monetary Union to avoid making mistakes. “We must learn from history, where the first Community was bedeviled by the Monetary Union leading to its eventual collapse,” he said.

    The president challenged the Partner States to rise to the occasion and to domesticate their laws to ensure the uptake of the Common Market Protocol. “To date none of the Partner has fully embraced the Common Market Protocol and there is need to do so expeditiously.”

    The President’s speech was anchored on three key messages: comparative advantage, synergy building and effectiveness, highlighting the rational use of resources.

    Kikwete cited the consolidation of the Customs Union towards a single Customs Territory, implementation of the critical activities of EAC Food Security and Climate Change Master Plan and the implementation of grand Community oriented projects such as those under the Lake Victoria Basin Commission as priorities of the Summit of EAC Heads of State.

    He called on EALA to harness the synergies between itself and the National Assemblies of partner states so as to strengthen the integration dispensation. He further asked the regional Assembly to regularly hold public hearings and consultations with key national leaders as it espouses its mandate to the citizens.

    It was imperative, Kikwete said, for the region to determine how the Assembly could utilize legislation to harness, mobilize and leverage the participation of the people in the integration process.

    “The principal responsibility to sensitize the public lies squarely on the head and shoulders of the political leadership in the region. We must address questions that arise including legislation necessary to support the private sector and media,” he said.

    In attendance were Members of EALA, Speakers of National Assemblies and their Representatives, former Speakers of EALA, Parliamentarians, the EAC Secretary General, government officials and other stakeholders. The EALA Plenary runs until December 6, 2012.

    The Speaker of EALA, Margaret Nantongo Zziwa, urged the region to speedily implement the Common Market Protocol which, she said, spelt a number of benefits for East Africa’s citizens.

    Newvision

  • Ugandan Nick Nola teams + Slim Burna on “Oya Na”

    {{Ugandan R&B Fusion artist, Nick Nola has decided to join Nigeria’s Slim Burna aka Gabriel Halliday on the official remix to his recent smash single ‘Oya Na’. }}

    The new song will be one of two Nola’s first-ever collaborations with Nigerian artists, both yet-to-be-released, and it’s also a great opportunity for Port-Harcourt’s very own Slim Burna who’s looking to extend his influence outside of his home country.

    Nola’s management, UGPulse, gave the assurance that the end product of the collaboration will enthrall fans and critics alike and also revealed that production duties will be handled by one of Uganda’s top producers, Producer Washington, and will be mastered in the US by Lurssen Mastering.

    There has been no official confirmation from either of the two artists regarding when the track will be released.

    Nick Nola is in the final stages of publishing his “Honey Moon” project, his long-awaited debut album that features engineers and producers from around Africa and the world.

    The new Oya Na Remix is among the songs to be published on this album.

    Slim Burna recently began work on a new mixtape called “I’m On Fire” which is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated mix-tapes to come out of southern Nigeria music scene.

  • EAC Leaders to Discuss South Sudan Admission

    {{East African Leades are expected to discuss about admission of South Sudan into the larger regional bloc.}}

    The five presidents of the East African Community states will convene in Nairobi November 30 for the 14th ordinary summit of heads of state.

    Discussions on East Africa’s Infrastructure will be a top item on the agenda.

    The summit will be preceded by a presidential retreat on infrastructure on Thursday 29 November and the launch ceremonies of the new EAC headquarters and the rehabilitated Arusha-Namanga-Athi River Road, in Arusha and Athi River town respectively.

    A statement from the EAC secretariat says both ceremonies will take place on Wednesday 28 November.

    “At Friday’s summit meeting, the heads of state are expected to consider the annual report of the council of ministers for the period November 2011, November 2012, a progress report of the council of ministers on the operationalization of the single customs territory,” read the statement.

    Among the other items due for consideration are reports of the council of ministers on the way forward on the political federation as well as on the implementation of the summit’s directive on extending the jurisdiction of the East African Court of Justice.

    A meeting of the Council of Ministers in preparation for the Summit concluded on Tuesday in Nairobi.

    Thereafter the presidents are expected to proceed to Tanzania to officially open the newly constructed EAC headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania before launching the rehabilitated Arusha-Namanga-Athi River Road in Athi River Town in Kenya.

    Since 2008, the heads of state have identified infrastructure as a major enabler of development of the region’s integration and overall socio-economic development.

    Again emphasis will be on priority regional infrastructure projects as well as funding options.

  • Ethnic Killings on Rise in South Sudan

    {{In South Sudan, Women and children are increasingly targeted in a surge of violence in Jonglei state, riven by ethnic killings, a rebellion and an army crackdown, Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday.}}

    “Tens of thousands of men, women and children have been repeatedly attacked, killed and displaced, with devastating impacts on their lives,” the report by the medical aid agency MSF read, documenting an upsurge in violence since 2011.

    “The lives and health of Jonglei’s population are hanging by a thread,” said Chris Lockyear, MSF’s operational manager, warning of a further “spike in violence” in the approaching dry season.

    Violence includes an escalation of traditional cattle raiding between rival tribes into a wave of brutal revenge attacks, exacerbated by an easy availability of automatic weapons.

    The nature of the attacks is shifting, MSF said, documenting multiple cases of rape in the vast and grossly impoverished state, while four of MSF’s six clinics in Jonglei have also been looted or destroyed since 2011.

    “While appropriating cattle used to be the main aim of the attacks, nowadays civilians are targeted, with women and children making up a large proportion of victims treated by MSF teams,” the report read.

    More than 2,600 people have been killed in Jonglei in the past 18 months, according to the United Nations.

    “They set huts on fire and threw children in the fire,” said one 55-year-old woman treated by MSF, whose testimony of an attack by unidentified gunmen is quoted in the report.

    “Because I am old, I cannot run fast and they killed the children that were with me,” she said. “If the child can run, they will shoot them with the gun; if they are small and cannot run, they will kill them with a knife.”

  • M23 Says will Pullout if Kabila Agrees to Demands

    {{M23 Rebels in Eastern DRC have said they would withdraw from the eastern city of Goma if President Joseph Kabila agreed to their demands, which the Congolese government was quick to dismiss as a farce.}}

    The deadlock threatens to prolong a crisis that regional officials had hoped they could prevent from descending into all-out war in a region dogged by nearly two decades of conflict.

    The M23 rebels, who have said they want to overthrow the government in Kinshasa, captured Goma last week after Congolese soldiers withdrew and U.N. peacekeepers were forced to give up defending the city.

    The Ugandan military, which has been coordinating talks with M23, said earlier on Tuesday that M23 leader Colonel Sultani Makenga had agreed to withdraw from Goma with no conditions.

    But the political chief of M23, Jean-Marie Runiga, told reporters in Goma his forces would withdraw if Kabila held national talks, released political prisoners and dissolved an electoral commission, a body accused by Western powers of delivering Kabila a second term in 2011 in a flawed election.

    “The withdrawal, yes. If Kabila agrees to our demands then we’ll go quickly,” Runiga told reporters in a hotel in Goma, flanked by senior M23 officials in civilian clothes and rebels in military fatigues.

    The conflicting statements indicated a quick solution to the latest insurgency in eastern Congo, which has displaced thousands of civilians, was not close.

    Lambert Mende, Congo’s government spokesman, quickly dismissed M23’s demands.

    “It’s a farce, that’s the word. There’s been a document adopted by the region. If each day they’re going to come back with new demands it becomes ridiculous. We’re no longer in the realms of seriousness,” Mende told Reuters from Kinshasa.

    The rebels on Tuesday showed no signs of an imminent pull-out and continued to guard strategic sites in Goma.

    More than half a dozen armed M23 fighters dressed in crisp fatigues stood in front of the central bank building as U.N. peacekeepers in two troop carriers looked on.

    “This is a sign we are in this for the long haul. M23 is digging in while the Congolese army prepares another offensive,” said Jason Stearns of independent research organisation the Rift Valley Institute. “It is difficult to imagine what the possible compromise could be between the two sides,” Stearns said.

    African leaders had at the weekend called on M23 to abandon their aim of toppling the government and to withdraw from Goma. The Great Lakes heads of state also proposed that U.N. peacekeepers in and around the city should provide security in a neutral zone between Goma and new areas seized by M23.

    Runiga also demanded the lifting of house arrest on a leading Kinshasa-based opposition member Etienne Tshisekedi as well as an inquiry into army corruption.

    He said the rebels were ready to work with MONUSCO, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo.

    Aronda Nyakayirima, Uganda’s military chief, had earlier said Makenga had agreed to withdraw from Goma and the eastern city of Sake.

    “We met last night and I communicated to him the decision of regional leaders reached on Saturday and he accepted to pull back his forces out of Goma and Sake and also stop any further advances southward,” Nyakayirima told Reuters in Kampala.

    “He didn’t put up any conditions for pulling out because he agreed that all their grievances will be resolved in the ICGLR (Great Lakes) mechanism as stipulated in the declarations of the Saturday summit (in Kampala),” he said.

    Reuters

  • Zonke Thrills Nairobi Fans

    {{In Kenya, Zonke pulled a Mariah Carey at the recent Tusker Malt 100 Club concert at the Nairobi Arboretum on Thursday night.}}

    The soul singer boasted the height and depth of her vocal range to catch the crowd’s attention, after the rains proved a minor distraction at the venue.

    In a well organised event, exclusive to Tusker Malt 100 club members, Zonke was eager to get on stage with her full band and two back-up vocalists.

    Dressed in a shimmering golden jacket that hugged a white vest atop faded blue jeans and red stilettos, Zonke poured out her soul to the audience via her very revealing album ‘Ina Ethe’.

    The biggest song of the evening was the ever popular Jik’Izinto, sung in a mix of English and Xhosa (her native tongue), followed by the catchy track ‘Feelings’.

    Zonke tried to accommodate her Kenyan fans by belting out more of her English songs.

    Her soulful music had just the right amount of jazz infused into it, carrying on from Kenyan guitarist Eddie Grey who was the opening act at the event.

    “I’m honoured to be performing in Kenya,” said the bubbly musician. “I’m bringing you a little bit of South Africa.”

    Close to 40 new members were registered to join the Tusker Malt 100 Club at the event, and they will be receiving exclusive access to several shows lined up by Tusker Malt with African music as the main theme.

    {Wirestory}

  • Kenya Politics: Uhuru, Ruto Declare Coalition

    {{Kenya’s Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto on Tuesday struck a coalition deal, ahead of the December 4 deadline for the filing of pre-election pacts with the Registrar of Political Parties.}}

    Sources close to the two said that the politicians had clinched a deal in which the Deputy Prime Minister will be the presidential candidate and Ruto his running mate.

    Later, the communications director at Kenyatta’s office, Munyori Buku, sent a statement to newsrooms saying; “The two leaders have agreed on an alliance whose goals will be national unity, prosperity for all Kenyans, reconciliation and offers a definite and clear roadmap of making Kenya an economic powerhouse in the region, Africa and the world in the next decade.”

    He did not divulge details of the pact which he said will be unveiled at a rally planned for Nakuru on Sunday.

    “A team from the two parties is working on the programme and plans for the day. Two caravans – one starting at Kinungi near Naivasha and the other at Kuresoi – will start the journey to Nakuru. Many other like-minded party leaders, MPs, aspirants for various seats, councillors and religious, business, women, youth, cooperative union, farmers and civil society leaders have been invited and will be present,” Buku indicated.

    A section of elders from counties in the North Rift region earlier dismissed an alliance between Ruto’s URP (United Republican Party) and Kenyatta’s TNA (The National Alliance), saying there has never been proper consultation of all stakeholders.

    According to a poll released by Ipsos Synovate last Tuesday, Kenyatta would win the election in case of a runoff.

    Most of the surveys have also showed that Kenyatta is the second most preferred candidate after Prime Minister Raila Odinga while Ruto has frequently occupied the third position.

    However, Kenyatta and Ruto are faced with obstacles in their bid to occupy State House.

    The leaders have a case pending in court challenging their eligibility to vie for political office over integrity queries, as stipulated in Chapter Six of the Constitution.

    The bid to block them stems from cases the two are facing for crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court.

    The ICC has however said the two are free to run for political office and has listed their cases for hearing in April, after Kenya goes to the polls on March 4, 2013.

    {WireStory}